Mari language

This article is about the Uralic language spoken in Russia. For other uses, see Mari language (disambiguation).
Mari
марий йылме marij jəlme
Region Russian Federation: autonomous republics Mari El, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Udmurtia; oblasti Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Sverdlovsk, Orenburg; Perm Krai
Ethnicity 548,000 Mari people (2010 census)[1]
Native speakers
 510,000  (2012)[1]
Uralic
  • Mari
Standard forms
Meadow Mari
Hill Mari
Official status
Official language in
  Mari El (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-2 chm
ISO 639-3 chm – inclusive code
Individual codes:
mhr – Meadow Mari (Eastern Mari)
mrj – Hill Mari (Western Mari)
Glottolog mari1278[2]

The Mari language (Mari: марий йылме, marij jəlme; Russian: марийский язык, mariyskiy yazyk), spoken by approximately 400,000 people, belongs to the Uralic language family. It is spoken primarily in the Mari Republic (Mari: Марий Эл, Marii El, i.e. 'Mari land') of the Russian Federation as well as in the area along the Vyatka river basin and eastwards to the Urals. Mari speakers, known as the Mari are found also in the Tatarstan, Udmurtia, and Perm regions.

Mari is the titular and official language of its republic, alongside Russian.

The Mari language today has a unified standard form with two variants Hill Mari and Meadow Mari, using a modified version of Cyrillic script, as well as several dialects close to Meadow Mari: Eastern (Ural) dialects (spoken by Maris in Bashkortostan, Sverdlovsk Oblast and Udmurtia), and Northwestern dialect (spoken in Novgorod Oblast and parts of Kirov Oblast).

The use of two "variants", as opposed to two "languages", has been debated: Maris recognize the unity of the ethnic group, and the two forms are very close, but distinct enough to cause some problems with communication.

Ethnonym and glottonym

The Mari language and people were known as "Cheremis" (Russian: черемисы, черемисский язык, cheremisy, cheremisskiy yazyk). In medieval texts the variant forms Sarmys and Tsarmys are also found, as well as Tatar Cyrillic: Чирмеш, Latin: Çirmeş; and Chuvash: Çармăс, Şarmăs before the Russian Revolution. The term Mari comes from the Maris' autonym марий (mari), which is thought to have been borrowed from the Indo-Aryan term *maryá- 'man', literally 'mortal, one who is bound to die' ( < PIE *mer- 'to die').

Sociolinguistic situation

Most Maris live in rural areas with slightly more than a quarter living in cities. In the republican capital, Yoshkar-Ola, the percentage of Maris is just over 23 percent. At the end of the 1980s (per the 1989 census) Maris numbered 670,868, of whom 80% (542,160) claimed Mari as their first language and 18.8% did not speak Mari. In the Mari Republic, 11.6% claimed Mari was not their first language. In a survey by the Mari Research Institute more than 3/4 of Maris survey considered Mari language to be the most crucial marker of ethnic identity, followed by traditional culture (61%) and common historical past (22%), religion (16%), character and mentality (15%) and appearance (11%) (see Glukhov and Glukhov for details). A gradual downward trend towards assimilation to Russian has been noted for the Communist period: the 1926 census indicated more than 99% of Maris considered Mari their first language, declining to less than 81% in 1989. Some qualitative evidence of a reversal in recent years has been noted.

There was no state support for Mari language in Imperial Russia, and with the exception of some enthusiasts and numerous ecclesiastical texts by the Russian Orthodox Church, there was almost no education in Mari language. After the October Revolution, there was a period of support of all lesser national cultures in the Soviet Union, but eventually Russification returned. While the development of Mari literary language continued, still, only elementary-school education was available in Mari in the Soviet period, with this policy ending in village schools in the 1970–1980s. The period of glasnost and perestroika in the 1990s opened opportunities for a revival of efforts expand the use of Mari in education and the public sphere. In the 1990s, the Mari language, alongside Russian, was proclaimed in the republican constitution to be an official language of Mari El. By the beginning of the 21st century, Mari language and literature was taught in 226 schools. At the History and Philology Department of the Mari State University and the Krupskaya Teachers' Training Institute (Yoshkar-Ola), more than half of the subjects are taught in Mari.

Dialects

Traditionally there are two macrodialects of Mari: Hill Mari, spoken on the upper bank of the Volga River, near Kozmodemyansk, and Meadow Mari on the lowland bank in and around the republican capital, Yoshkar-Ola. Today linguists distinguish four dialects: Hill (right-bank of the Volga and part of the left bank), Meadow (at the confluence of the Kokshaga and Volga rivers), Eastern (east of the Vyatka), and Northwestern. Some Mari also speak Tatar.

Orthography

Mari is mostly written with the Cyrillic script.

Grammar

Like other Uralic languages, Mari is an agglutinating language. It lacks grammatical gender, and does not use articles.

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
unrounded rounded unrounded unrounded rounded
Close /i/
и/i		 /y/
ӱ/ü		 /u/
у/u
Mid /e/
е/e		 /ø/
ӧ/ö		 /ə/1
ӹ/ı		 /ɤ/
ы/ə		 /o/
о/o
Open /æ/1
ä/ä		 /ɑ/
а/a
  1. Only in Hill Mari
Word prosody and vowel harmony

Stress is not phonemic in Mari, but a dynamic stress system is exhibited phonetically, the stressed syllable being higher in pitch and amplitude and greater in length than an unstressed syllable. Generally, there is one prominent syllable per word and prominence may be found in any syllable of the word. Post- and prefixes behave as clitics, i.e. they do not have their own stress. For example, пӧ́рт (pört, "house") гыч (gəč, "out of") ([ˈpørt ɣɤt͡ʃ]); or му́ро (muro, "song") дене (dene, "with") ([ˈmuro ðene]).

Consonants

Consonants are shown in Cyrillic, Latin, and the IPA:

Labial Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar
plain palatalized
Nasal /m/
м/m		 /n/
н/n		 /ɲ/
н(ь)/n(’)2		 /ŋ/
ҥ4/ŋ
Plosive voiceless /p/
п/p		 /t/
т/t		 /tʲ/1
т(ь)/t'2		 /k/
к/k
voiced (/b/
б/b)3		 (/d/
д/d)3		 (/ɡ/
г/g)3
Affricate /ts/1
ц/c		 /tʃ/
ч/č
Fricative voiceless /f/1
ф/f		 /s/
с/s		 /ʃ/
ш/š		 /x/1
х/h
voiced /β/
б/b3		 /ð/
д/d3		 /z/
з/z		 /ʒ/
ж/ž		 /ɣ/
г/g3
Rhotic /r/ (or /ɾ/)
р/r
Approximant central /j/
j
lateral /l/
л/l		 /ʎ/
л(ь)/l(’)2
  1. Only in Russian loanwords, in Hill Mari also onomatopoeia and Chuvashian loanwords.
  2. Palatalisation is marked in different ways. A ⟨у⟩ following a palatalised consonant is written as ⟨ю⟩, and ⟨а⟩ following a palatalised consonant is written as ⟨я⟩. If the vowel following a palatalised consonant is an е or an и, palatalisation is not marked at all. In other cases, the soft sign ь is used to mark palatalisation.
  3. In Russian loanwords and after nasals, /b d ɡ/ are voiced stops. Word-finally and before a consonant, there is free variation between voiced fricatives ([β ð ɣ]) and voiceless stops [p t k].
  4. The modified Cyrillic letter for the velar nasal (ŋ) combines the Cyrillic letter ⟨Н н⟩ with and ⟨Г г⟩, where the rightmost post of Н is conflated with the vertical post of ⟨Г⟩: ⟨Ҥ, ҥ⟩. Although Hill Mari has this sound too, this character is only used in Meadow Mari.

Phonological processes

Like several other Uralic languages, Mari has vowel harmony. In addition to front/back harmony, Mari also features round/unround harmony. If the stressed vowel in the word is rounded, then the suffix will contain a rounded vowel: for example, кӱтӱ́ (kütü, "herd") becomes кӱтӱ́штӧ (kütüštö, "in the herd"); if the stressed vowel is unrounded, then the suffix will contain an unrounded vowel: ки́д (kid, "hand") becomes ки́дыште (kidəšte, "in the hand"). If the stressed vowel is back, then the suffix will end in a back vowel: агу́р (agur, "whirlpool") becomes агу́рышто (agurəšto, "in the whirlpool") (Зорина, Крылова, Якимова 1990: 9).

Declension

Case

Meadow Mari has 9 productive cases, of which 3 are locative cases. The usage of the latter ones is restricted to inanimate objects.

Many cases, aside from their basic function, are used in other situations, such as in expressions of time.

Case Name Suffix Question Words Example (animate) Example (inanimate)
Nominative - кö, мо (who, what) йоча (a child; subject) ял (a village; subject)
Genitive -(ы)н кöн, мон (whose, what's) йочан (of a child) ялын (of a village)
Dative -лан кöлан, молан (to whom, to what/why) йочалан (to a child) яллан (to a village)
Accusative -(ы)м кöм, мом (whom, what) йочам (a child; object) ялым (a village; object)
Comitative -ге кöге, моге (with whom, with what) йочаге (with a child) ялге (with a village)
Comparative -ла кöла, мола (like who, like what) йочала (like a child) ялла (like a village)
Inessive -(ы)ште/(ы)што/(ы)штӧ кушто (where) - ялыште (in a village)
Illative -(ы)шке/(ы)шко/(ы)шкӧ, -(ы)ш1 кушко/куш (where to) - ялышке/ялыш (to a village)
Lative -ш/еш/эш кушан (where to) - ялеш (into a village)
  1. The illative has a short form, equivalent to the long form in meaning.

If a locative statement was to be made about an animate object, postpositions would be used.

Additionally, terms denoting family members have vocative forms. These are, however, not created with a specific paradigm, and only exist in a few pre-defined cases.

Hill Mari has these cases, plus the abessive case, which is used to form adverbials stating without the involvement or influence of which an action happens.

Number

Mari, though an agglutinative language, does not have a separate morpheme to signify plurality. There are three particles, which are attached to the end of words with a hyphen, used to signify plural.

Possessive suffixes

Every grammatical person in Mari has its own possessive suffix.

Person Suffix Example
- - шӱргӧ (face)
First-person singular -ем/эм шӱргем (my face)
Second-person singular -ет/эт шӱргет (your face)
Third-person singular -же/жо/жӧ/ше/шо/шӧ шӱргыжӧ (his/her/its face)
First-person plural -на шӱргына (our face)
Second-person plural -да шӱргыда (your face)
Third-person singular -шт/ышт шӱргышт (their face)

Additional suffixes

Additional particles, falling into none of the categories above, can be added to the very end of a word, giving it some additional meaning. For example, the suffix -ат (-at), means 'also' or 'too'.

Arrangement of suffixes

The arrangement of suffixes varies from case to case. Although the case suffixes are after the possessive suffixes in the genitive and the accusative, the opposite is the case for the locative cases. In the dative, both arrangements are possible.

Case Singular Example Plural
Nominative P пӧртем – 'my house (subject)' пӧртем-влак – 'my houses (subject)'
Genitive P → C пӧртемын – 'of my house' пӧртем-влакын – 'of my houses'
Accusative пӧртемым – 'my house (object)' пӧртем-влакым – 'my houses (object)'
Comitative пӧртемге – 'with my house' пӧртем-влакге – 'with my houses'
Dative P → C, C → P пӧртемлан, пӧртланем – 'to my houses' пӧртем-влаклан – 'to my houses'
Comparative P → C, C → P пӧртемла, пӧртлам – 'like my house' пӧртем-влакла – 'like my houses'
Inessive C → P пӧртыштем – 'in my house' пӧрт-влакыштем – 'in my houses'
Illative пӧртышкем – 'into my house' пӧрт-влакышкем – 'into my houses'
Lative пӧртешем – 'into my house' пӧрт-влакешем – 'into my houses'

There are many other arrangements in the plural—the position of the plural particle is flexible. The arrangement here is one commonly used possibility.

Comparison

Comparison happens with adjectives and adverbs. The comparative is formed with the suffix -рак (-rak). The superlative is formed by adding the word эн (en) in front.

Comparative Superlative
кугу – 'big' кугурак – 'bigger' эн кугу – 'biggest'

Conjugation

Morphologically, conjugation follows three tenses and three moods in Meadow Mari.

Conjugation types

In Meadow Mari, words can conjugate according to two conjugation types. These differ from each other in all forms but the infinitive and the third-person plural of the imperative. Unfortunately, the infinitive is the form denoted in dictionaries and word lists. It is, thus, necessary to either mark verb infinitives by their conjugation type in word lists, or to include a form in which the conjugation type is visible—usually, the first-person singular present, which ends in -ам (or -ям) for verbs in the first declination, and in -ем (or -эм) for second-declination verbs.

Tense

The three tenses of Mari verbs are:

The present tense is used for present and future actions, for states of being and for habitual actions, among others.

The first preterite is used to express observed, recent actions.

The second preterite is used for actions that are in the more-distant past.

Additional tenses can be formed through periphrasis.

Mood

The moods are:

The indicative is used to express facts and positive beliefs. All intentions that a particular language does not categorize as another mood are classified as indicative. It can be formed in all persons, in all times.

The imperative expresses direct commands, requests, and prohibitions. It only exists in the present tense, and exists in all persons but the first person singular.

The desiderative is used to express desires. It can be formed for all persons, in the present tense and in the two periphrastic imperfect.

Negation

Negation in Mari uses a 'negative verb', much like Finnish does. The negative verb is more versatile than the negative verb in Finnish (see Finnish grammar), existing in more grammatical tenses and moods. It has its own form in the present indicative, imperative and desiderative, and in the first preterite indicative. Other negations are periphrastic.

The negation verb in its corresponding form is put in front of the negated verb in its second-person singular (the stem-only form), much as it is in Finnish and Estonian.

Person Indicative present Imperative present Desiderative present Indicative first preterite
First-person singular ом (om) - ынем (ənem) шым (šəm)
Second-person singular от (ot) ит (it) ынет (ənet) шыч (səč)
Third-person singular огеш (ogeš) / ок (ok) ынже (ənže) ынеж(е) (ənež(e)) ыш (əš)
First-person plural огына (ogəna) / она (ona) - ынена (ənena) ышна (əšna)
Second-person plural огыда (ogəda) / ода (oda) ида (ida) ынеда (əneda) ышда (əšda)
Third-person plural огыт (ogət) ынышт (ənəšt) ынешт (ənešt) ышт (əšt)

The verb улаш (ulaš) – to be – has its own negated forms.

Person
First-person singular – 'I am not' омыл (oməl)
Second-person singular – 'You are not' отыл (otəl)
Third-person singular – 'He/she/it is not' огыл (ogəl)
First-person plural – 'We are not' огынал (ogənal) / онал (onal)
Second-person plural – 'You are not' огыдал (ogədal) / одал (odal)
Third-person plural – 'They are not' огытыл (ogətəl)

Example

In order to illustrate the conjugation in the respective moods and times, one verb of the first declination (лекташ – to go) and one verb of the second declination (мондаш – to forget) will be used.

Conjugation of the present indicative positive
Person 1st dec. pos. 2nd dec. pos.
1st singular лектам (I go) мондем (I forget)
2nd singular лектат (You go) мондет (You forget)
3rd singular лектеш (He/she/it goes) монда (He/she/it forgets)
1st plural лектына (We go) мондена (We forget)
2nd plural лектыда (You go) мондеда (You forget)
3rd plural лектыт (They go) мондат (They forget)
Conjugation of the present indicative negative
Person 1st dec. neg. 2nd dec. neg.
1st singular ом лек2 (I don't go) ом мондо1 (I don't forget)
2nd singular от лек2 (You don't go) от мондо1 (You don't forget)
3rd singular огеш лек2 (He/she/it doesn't go) огеш мондо1 (He/she/it doesn't forget)
1st plural огына лек2 (We don't go) огына мондо1 (We don't forget)
2nd plural огыда лек2 (You don't go) огыда мондо1 (You don't forget)
3rd plural огыт лек2 (They don't go) огыт мондо1 (They don't forget)
  1. Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be е/о/ӧ, depending on the preceding full vowel.
  2. First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
Conjugation of the 1st preterite indicative positive
Person 1st dec. pos. 2nd dec. pos.
1st singular лектым3 (I went) мондышым (I forgot)
2nd singular лектыч3 (You went) мондышыч (You forgot)
3rd singular лекте1, 3 (He/she/it went) мондыш (He/she/it forgot)
1st plural лекна2 (We went) мондышна (We forget)
2nd plural лекда2 (You went) мондышда (You forgot)
3rd plural лектыч3 (They went) мондышт (They forgot)
  1. Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be е/о/ӧ, depending on the preceding full vowel.
  2. First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
  3. If the consonant prior to the ending can be palatalized—if it is л (l) or н (n)—it is palatalized in this position. Palatalization is not marked if the vowel following a consonant is an е.
    колаш → кольым, кольыч, кольо, колна, колда, кольыч (to hear)
Conjugation of the 1st preterite indicative negative
Person 1st dec. neg. 2nd dec. neg.
1st singular шым лек2 (I didn't go) шым мондо1 (I didn't forget)
2nd singular шыч лек2 (You didn't go) шыч мондо1 (You didn't forget)
3rd singular ыш лек2 (He/she/it didn't go) ыш мондо1 (He/she/it didn't forget)
1st plural ышна лек2 (We didn't go) ышна мондо1 (We don't forget)
2nd plural ышда лек2 (You didn't go) ышда мондо1 (You didn't forget)
3rd plural ышт лек2 (They didn't go) ышт мондо1 (They didn't forget)
  1. Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be е/о/ӧ, depending on the preceding full vowel.
  2. First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
Conjugation of the 2nd preterite indicative positive
Person 1st dec. pos. 2nd dec. pos.
1st singular лектынам (I went) монденам (I forgot)
2nd singular лектынат (You went) монденат (You forgot)
3rd singular лектын (He/she/it went) монден (He/she/it forgot)
1st plural лектынна (We went) монденна (We forget)
2nd plural лектында (You went) монденда (You forgot)
3rd plural лектыныт (They went) монденыт (They forgot)
Conjugation of the 2nd preterite indicative negative
Person 1st dec. neg. 2nd dec. neg.
1st singular лектын омыл (I didn't go) монден омыл (I didn't forget)
2nd singular лектын отыл (You didn't go) монден отыл (You didn't forget)
3rd singular лектын огыл(He/she/it didn't go) монден огыл(He/she/it didn't forget)
1st plural лектын огынал (We didn't go) монден огынал (We don't forget)
2nd plural лектын огыдал (You didn't go) монден огыдал (You didn't forget)
3rd plural лектын огытыл (They didn't go) монден огытыл (They didn't forget)
Conjugation of the imperative positive
Person 1st dec. pos. 2nd dec. pos.
1st singular – –
2nd singular лек3 (Go!) мондо1 (Forget!)
3rd singular лекше2 (He/She/It should go) мондыжо1 (He/She/It should forget)
1st plural лектына (Let's go) мондена (Let's forget)
2nd plural лекса2 (Go!) мондыза (Forget!)
3rd plural лекытшт (They should go) мондышт (They should forget)
  1. Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be е/о/ӧ, depending on the preceding full vowel.
  2. First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative.
  3. In the first conjugation, the imperative second-person singular is formed by removing the -аш ending from the infinitive. Four consonant combinations are not allowed at the end of an imperative, and are thus simplified—one consonant is lost.
    кт → к, нч → ч, чк → ч, шк → ш
Conjugation of the imperative negative
Person 1st dec. neg. 2nd dec. neg.
1st singular - -
2nd singular ит лек2 (Don't go!) ит мондо1 (Don't forget!)
3rd singular ынже лек2 (He/She/It shouldn't go) ынже мондо1 (He/She/It shouldn't forget)
1st plural огына лек2 (Let's not go) огына мондо1 (Let's not forget)
2nd plural ида лек2 (Don't go!) ида мондо1 (Don't forget!)
3rd plural ынышт лек2 (They shouldn't go) ынышт мондо1 (They shouldn't forget)
  1. Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be е/о/ӧ, depending on the preceding full vowel.
  2. First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
Conjugation of the present desiderative positive
Person 1st dec. pos. 2nd dec. pos.
1st singular лекнем2 (I want to go) мондынем (I want to forget)
2nd singular лекнет2 (You want to go) мондынет (You want to forget)
3rd singular лекнеже2 (He/she/it wants to go) мондынеже (He/she/it wants to forget)
1st plural лекнена2 (We want to go) мондынена (We want to forget)
2nd plural лекнеда2 (You want to go) мондынеда (You want to forget)
3rd plural лекнешт2 (They want to go) мондынешт (They want to forget)
  1. First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
Conjugation of the present desiderative negative
Person 1st dec. neg. 2nd dec. neg.
1st singular ынем лек2 (I don't want to go) ынем мондо1 (I don't want to forget)
2nd singular ынет лек2 (You don't want to go) ынет мондо1 (You don't want to forget)
3rd singular ынеже лек2 (He/she/it doesn't want to go) ынеже мондо1 (He/she/it doesn't want to forget)
1st plural ынена лек2 (We don't want to go) ынена мондо1 (We don't want to forget)
2nd plural ынеда лек2 (You don't want to go) ынеда мондо1 (You don't want to forget)
3rd plural ынешт лек2 (They don't want to go) ынешт мондо1 (They don't want to forget)
  1. Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be е/о/ӧ, depending on the preceding full vowel.
  2. First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
Conjugation of улаш – to be – in the indicative mood
Person Present (positive) Present (negative) 1st preterite (positive) 1st preterite (negative) 2nd preterite (positive) 2nd preterite (negative)
1st sing. улам (I am) омыл (I am not) ыльым (I was) шым лий (I was not) улынам (I was) лийын омыл (I was not)
2nd sing. улат (You are) отыл (You are not) ыльыч (You were) шыч лий (You were not) улынат (You were) лийын отыл (You were not)
3rd sing. уло (улеш) (He/she/it is) огыл (He/she/it is not) ыле (He/she/it was) ыш лий (He/she/it was not) улмаш(ын) (He/she/it was) лийын огыл (He/she/it was not)
1st pl. улына (We are) огынал (We are not) ыльна (We were) ышна лий (We were not) улынна (We were) лийын огынал (We were not)
2nd pl. улыда (You are) огыдал (You are not) ыльда (You were) ышда лий (You were not) улында (You were) лийын огыдал (You were not)
3rd pl. улыт (They are) огытыл (They are not) ыльыч (They were) ышт лий (They were not) улыныт (They were) лийын огытыл (They were not)

Infinitive forms

Verbs have two infinitive forms: the standard infinitive and the necessive infinitive, used when a person must do something. The person needing to do something is put in the dative in such a situation.

Participles

There are four participles in Meadow Mari:

Gerunds

There are five gerunds in Meadow Mari:

Syntax

Word order in Mari is subject–object–verb.

Some common words and phrases

Note that the accent mark, which denotes the place of stress, is not used in actual Mari orthography.

Bibliography

1990;

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mari at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Meadow Mari (Eastern Mari) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Hill Mari (Western Mari) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Mari". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

External links

Hill Mari edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Meadow Mari edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mari language.